'Deeply ashamed' MAGA host backtracks after uproar for calling to 'take out' Dem governor

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports inflammatory right-wing radio host Dan O'Donnell apologized on X a few days after calling for someone to “take out” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

O’Donnell made the explosive comment while high on President Donald Trump’s joint missile strikes on Iran, which killed Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel and neighboring Arab countries soon plunged the Middle East into disruption.

But O’Donnell, a Milwaukee host of iHeartMedia’s WISN-AM (1130), didn’t see the downside of that. Instead, O’Donnell took it further by posting a March 1 request on X to: "Now take out the Supreme Leader of Minnesota. We will be greeted as liberators.”

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports O’Donnell then followed up that tweet with an AI photo of Gov. Walz wearing a black turban with the phrase "Death to fraud investigations!" in quotes.

On March 3, however, O’Donnell apologized for his post on X, writing: "I want to take a moment to offer my sincerest apologies for a post I made about Minnesota's Governor that, quite frankly, I am deeply ashamed of. … It was irresponsible and completely inappropriate and I have since taken it down. It served only to deepen divisions at a time when unity and basic human decency are most needed.”

“My primary responsibility as a broadcaster, a father, and a person is to always comport myself professionally, appropriately, and compassionately, and I failed to do that,” O’Donnell added, saying “Again, I am truly, deeply, unequivocally sorry."

The Sentinel reports the apology popped up within an hour of O’Donnell’s Tuesday show. But he still didn’t make a show appearance that day and was instead replaced by host Matt Kittle. O’Donnell’s radio station, WISN-AM, did not respond to the Sentinel’s request for comment.

O’Donnell’s humble contrition follows the 2025 shooting and killing a former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. The gunman's manifesto allegedly included 11 Wisconsin lawmakers.

"This isn’t funny,” state Sen. Kelda Roys told the Sentinel. “Minnesota just had two lawmakers and their spouses shot by a political assassin. Their speaker and her husband died. I’ve gotten death threats for decades. This is unacceptable."

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley similarly said O'Donnell's remarks "are not commentary or satire. They’re dangerous."